There are so many great accomplishments by blacks I wonder why all the negativity.
by Rick Lowe
I've recently started re-reading Dr. Walter Williams, Race and Economics: How much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? and as he points out "…As a group,black Americans include many of the world's richest and most famous personalties…" "…However, if one listens to spokesmen for civil rights organizations, self-anointed black leaders, and various politicians, one would get a different impression about blacks."
In other words, through all the adversity faced, just a couple generations ago, in the scheme of things, black Americans are extremely successful.
The following chart, copied from Chapter One (Blacks Today and Yesterday) makes their accomplishments quite clear:
I believe a similar analogy can be drawn here at home.
I also believe sometimes our so-called leaders – political that is – need to focus on the positive gains of Bahamians. They did it, not through hand outs and re-distribution, but through grit and determination.
What's your take?
Hi Rick,
I’ll have to browse the book first before I give you my take on this issue because on the one hand, Dr Williams’ premise seems entirely plausible …. whilst on another, it may be at odds with what one could surmise from a more detailed analysis of economic gains of Black Americans (which are patently distorted in favour of sports, music and other celebrities), c.f. other races that have made sustainable gains by covering the range of professions over time? Or have I missed the point?
Hi S3S:
Check the book out first.
You might also like the post set for today. I was blasted about my “whiteness” and not being able to understand about this post in an e-mail.
If we can just get past the emotionalism sometimes.
To use the term “family” is somewhat misleading.. Your table deals with individuals and not families.. What is so disturbing in America and the Bahamas as well is the pronounced decline of basic family values in all races across the board.. The concept of family use to be the cornerstone and foundation our social structure where morality, pride and self-esteem were learned and passed on to future generations.. Today the concept of family has given way to individual self-indulgence supported by so-called government handouts at the expense of family structure and values.. We see this decline reflected in poor school performance, increasing rates of drug addiction, teen pregnacy and a rising crime rates which are symptoms of a declining family structure and values.. What do you think Bahamas and how can this trend be reversed??
They also did so largely after majority rule & the extension of fundamental services like health care, sanitation, and education to the majority of the population. Some of those things, being offered at considerable cost to the government and very little cost to the individuals, may have been termed handouts. They also did so because the opening up of participation in our economy to a far wider group of people made business more profitable for all for a time. The creation of millionaires of colour between the 1960s and the 1980s had a direct relation to government interference in our economy — and the results of that interference bore economic fruit.
Thanks Nico.
You might term it interference in the economy, but it was establishing equality before the law – as it should be.
They were not handouts though.
For the record the term “handout” or the plural is commonly used in the United States with reference to government welfare programs such as Food Stamps, unemployment compensation and even to the provision of free health care to illegal aliens and others by private hospital Emergency Rooms.. Today over forty-six million American residents are beneficiaries of food stamp handouts while over forty percent of the American population receive some form of government handout or payment.. No wonder the country is in such an economic mess as no one really wants to work when you can get it for what is now believed to be for free..
You are right Tradewinds. The headline is probably incorrect for the post.
My posts offer hints of suggestions on how to improve these issues, but a broad brush solution? I have no idea.
Do you have any ideas?